Dr. Jack Kevorkian Dead at 83

DETROIT—Dr. Jack Kevorkian died this morning at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. He was 83.

The Associated Press reported that Kevorkian had been hospitalized in May after experiencing pneumonia and kidney problems.

Kevorkian, the world renowned assisted-suicide advocate, was released from prison in 2007 after serving for 8 years. He had assisted in at least 130 suicides.

Kevorkian, born in Pontiac, Mich. to Armenian immigrant parents, was also a painter and composer.

“You Don’t Know Jack,” a film by Oscar-winning director Barry Levinso and based on the life and work of Jack Kevorkian, aired on HBO in April 2010.

Al Pacino won the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award in February for “Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a TV Movie or Mini-Series” for his role as Jack Kevorkian in the HBO movie “You Don’t Know Jack.”

The plot takes place in the 1990’s when Kevorkian, a former pathologist, began his highly controversial practice of assisting suicides and brought the topic of euthanasia to the forefront of American political debate.

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Satenik, you know what’s the greater disgrace, that very few individuals (Armenians too) ever sent him money during those 8 years. In order to survive and have a decent meal in the state or federal prison systems, you are forced to purchase from the commissary, and in order to purchase decent snacks or food, money is required. Most Armenians shunned away from him.
But, the January event at UCLA was amazing, and it was amazing that towards the end of his life for once an Armenian organization was able to honor him while he was alive.

I don’t know about that, but if that is true ,it is indeed a great shame. I think though that Dr. Kevorkian himself held no grudge against the Armenians . Like any Great Man, being in prison did not embitter him, I can think of Nelson Mandela when it comes to this. I believe that he loved Armenians and Armenians should be indeed proud that Dr. Kevorkian was simply too advanced for his visions to be appreciated in the USA. The best the state could offer him was a pathetic prison sentence. He should be given a Nobel Prize, but I guess he was too honourable and nobel to receive it….well when I think that Obama got the Nobel Peace Prize……I think I should stop here.

Jack… the Armenian Angle Gabriel Arrived Heaven,
To Treat and Sing with His Peers

The life is unbearable
When someone has ‘Intolerable Pain’…
Where no medicines
No drugs can help…

Hence…For what to live
If there is no cure
To have more pain
And sigh every second
For days…and days
Till the savior arrives…!

And end where and when…!
As the end is end
No one can escape
Jack was not a slayer but pathologist
He knew the end of every disease…
He was but a Painter, Composer, Instrumentalist

He was “right to die activist”
Named euthanastist…
“Death with Dignity”

He was imprisoned…for eight springs…
By the judges…Never by God
Those…Who never understood his conscious mind…
Others wanted to open more hospices for care
To earn more and spread that wealth and enjoy…!
Let their cohorts work hard and pay…!

They named him ‘Doctor Death’
Did he kill a child?
How about tyrants…genociders
Who killed the unborn before the pregnant mother…

Was he terrorist ?
Or ex-IMF chief, Mr. DSK*
Or Mr. Madoff** …Who emptied the pockets of the rich and poor
Till his son Mark*** committed suicide at his behalf…!
Why we don’t call him ‘Father Death’…!

Can healthy and young ones understand?
What does it mean sick….demented…
They will never feel
Till they reach that chair
Wishing to end their life
As the end is end
No one could delay…!

It is a shame to put such a great man a great Doctor in 8 years jail.
He has served the Humanity…letting the terminally ill persons
where there is really no hope to cure, to pass away without (or may be a very little) pain. He should have
been Admired greatly…Jail no-way, not even for one day…

Whether you agree with his beliefs or not you have to admire his conviction. That conviction he steadfastly held all his life and even gave up eight years of his life. Most people are ready to abandon their convictions to save their skins.

Dr. Kevorkian’s legacy will be that he created debate and recognition on a taboo subject: handling death. The misconception about Dr. K was that he encouraged suicide as a form of treatment. Instead, he presented it as an option for individuals who had an incurable disease, who were in the final stage of their disease, and were in immense, indescribable pain.

His flaw was that he believed he could single-handedly change the perception of the medical community. It was only after televising a suicide administration, that he was prosecuted.

A giant amongst pygmies. Don’t fall under the yoke of America. Profound insight from a master. Keep your language, learn your language, keep your traditions, honor your history. Keep your armenian race. He was incarcerated unjustly, for his enlightenement. He is gone for ever, we are the poorer with his passing away; he’ll have his place in the pantheon in Erevan.; just like W. Saroyan

I’m so very proud that the kind of pioneering ideological leaps that created our Western Civilization has been taken up by an Armenian guy.
What used to be the purview of Jewish ideologues and innovators exclusively has now been taken up by an Armenian Scientist, scholar and ideologue.
Of course I’m proud. May there be many others. It’s time for us to fill the gap and excel in this measure of pioneering thought.

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